Season 2, episode 3 continues where we left off last week. Lucy is at the mercy of the brutal faction Caesar’s Legion. Unfortunately, “The Profligate” was not the drama-fueled adventure that would force Lucy to embrace her inner badass Wastelander.
Instead, the ancient Roman-inspired faction we see in the show is a shell of its former self. They’re not the unstoppable war machine fans remember from Fallout: New Vegas. They’re still terrifying, but they’re also falling apart from the inside.
What happened to Caesar?
The episode reveals that Edward Sallow, the original Caesar, is dead. The show never tells us how he died, only that it happened sometime after the events of New Vegas.
That ambiguity allows the series to respect every New Vegas player’s personal canon. Maybe Caesar died in battle, or some off-screen power struggle. The show is more interested in exploring how his absence impacts the Legion.
A war over a dead man’s empire
Without Caesar, the Legion has split into two rival factions. Each one follows its own would-be Caesar while insisting they’re the rightful heirs to Sallow’s vision.
These two camps face each other across a no man’s land, locked in a stalemate. Somewhere between them lies Sallow’s body and with it, a scrap of paper that supposedly names his chosen successor.
Neither side can retrieve it without exposing themselves to the other. So the Legion is locked into a war that can’t decide a clear winner.
It’s a dark little joke. The Legion used to devour entire regions. Now it can’t even cross a field to read a note.
Lucy on the cross
Remember the wounded woman Lucy saved in last week’s episode? The Legion decapitates her as soon as they get their hands on her.
The Legion captures Lucy and crucifies her at their camp. Even then, Lucy tries to negotiate. She offers herself as a mediator between the rival Caesar’s, hoping to reach some kind of political solution.
They refuse Lucy’s offer. Remember that the Legion is extremely misogynistic and only sees women as slaves. And if they can’t enslave a woman, they’ll murder her instead.
The Ghoul’s to the rescue
Still recovering from being attacked by giant Radscorpions, The Ghoul works out a plan to rescue Lucy. He knows he can’t fight the Legion head-on, so he goes looking for help.
That search takes him to Camp Golf, where the New California Republic’s decay is on full display. The resort is mostly empty, aside from Victor, the Securitron from New Vegas who digs the player up. Now he’s just another relic barely holding on.
Victor points The Ghoul toward the last scraps of the NCR in the region: a pair of rangers hiding in the hills for over a decade. Still technically at war with a Legion that barely notices them anymore.
With their help, the Ghoul strolls into the Legion’s camp ready to make a deal. He trades information about the rangers’ position for Lucy’s release. It seems like he just sold out what’s left of the NCR, but that’s just part of his ruse.
Before he leaves, he sets explosives between the two Legion factions. Once Lucy is free, the explosives go off. The blast shoves the stalemate into an all-out slaughterfest. The Ghoul walks away with Lucy while the Legion tears itself apart, using the chaos as a cover for their escape.It’s disappointing to see Caesar’s Legion like this. They had a lot of potential to be a key antagonist this season but maybe that’s the whole point. Years of infighting is poisoning the once mighty faction, its power and influence wasting away. We’re supposed to see the Legion as it is now and miss what they used to be.
